Fields of Gold
by hansbmd
Summary: Harry reflects on his and Ginny's relationship and how it has evolved over the years, particularly on interactions that have taken place between them while they walked in a meadow outside the Burrow at sunset on a summer's eve. Set to Celtic Woman's "Fields of Gold."


**Hello everyone! I'm back! My first story published on this site in four years! Sorry it's been so long. I started writing for another site and between that and school, I ran out of time for this one. Well, school isn't as arduous now as it has been, so I'm making time for this site again. I hope I still have followers on here!**

**This is based on Celtic Woman's version of the song "Fields of Gold," by Sting. As usual when I do songfics, I'm going to post a link to the video on my profile page. You can listen while you read. Lisa Kelly of Celtic Woman really does the most beautiful version. I'm sure you'll love it. I'd also like to thank a fellow Celtic Woman fan on here, Adam Decker, who gave me the idea for this story originally. It's been years since he suggested it to me and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write it, but I hope I did all right.**

**Please leave a review and tell me what you think! Happy reading!**

* * *

Harry often thought back to that first summer he spent at the Burrow when he was twelve years old. How quickly the summer had gone from being stuck in the twelfth level of Hell, or more literally, his aunt and uncle's house (but one could argue that each and every hour spent with the Dursley's was the twelfth level of Hell), to spending weeks in absolute paradise at the Burrow with his friends. The Weasley's had always the nearest Harry had ever known to a family: Ron, Fred, George, and if he were honest, even Percy, the brothers he never had; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley providing unconditional love and care; and Ginny…

For a long time, he didn't realize what his feelings for Ginny exactly were. When he was twelve, he thought of her as a friend and sister, trying to ignore the fact that she had a celebrity crush on him. What he liked about Ron, Fred and George was that they had gotten to know him enough that they didn't really think of him as the famous Harry Potter anymore. He still had some work to do to get Ginny to see that.

The end of that summer, every day was spent in the fields with his friends, mostly playing Quidditch, but to Harry, every moment spent out of doors was a celebration of freedom after being locked in his room in the house in Privet Drive. Feeling the wind on his face was the greatest accomplishment he could hope for.

There was one afternoon, though, that stuck in his memory about that time. It was the night before he and the others were due to return to Hogwarts, and while they should have been busy packing, what they were doing instead was sitting in the grass enjoying their last night at home. Ginny had finally become accustomed to Harry being there, and while she still couldn't really speak to him without stuttering and she didn't often look him in the eye, she could at least be in the same room with him for an extended period of time and not feel the urge to bolt. That night, she seemed to be the happiest person in the world, one bundle of excitement and slight nerves at the prospect of finally going to Hogwarts after years of anticipation.

Harry had been lying in the grass for at least an hour, content to just let the setting sun shine down on his face and ignore the rest of the world. He knew he wouldn't be disturbed either. Fred and George were off somewhere planning what would be their last prank on their mother for several months, Percy was in his room packing, and Ron had been coerced by his mother into helping with chores. He sighed; everything was perfect. He had almost even forgotten about Dobby and the incident with the pudding, but that night, it felt as though nothing could touch him, not even the plot of which the house elf had warned him. He knew he'd come back to reality with a hard crash tomorrow (literally, for he didn't know at that moment that he would crash into the gateway of Platform 9¾ the next morning and be barred access to the Hogwarts Express), but at that moment, there was peace and all was well.

A giggle sounded from nearby him and he looked up slightly to see Ginny running through the fields nearby. She hadn't yet seen him, her attention was fixed on chasing a butterfly whose wings were the exact color of the setting sun. He smiled slightly; Ginny was a very nice, very bright young girl, and he knew she was going to do well at Hogwarts. She also was very friendly, witty and surprisingly, fairly tough (he had seen her interactions with her brothers and she could hold her own remarkably well against Fred and George's antics, something Harry was still attempting to learn), but every time she came within seeing distance of him, she would look away and shut herself down. He knew she was shy around him, but he wished she wouldn't be. At that moment, she looked radiant, the last rays of the sun reflecting brilliantly on her bright red hair, enveloping her in what appeared to be a golden-red halo. The way she was running, free as a bird, it was almost as though she were an angel in disguise as a child. Without her brothers there to pester them, this might be a good chance to get her to open up.

"Hello, Ginny," Harry said jovially, partly being friendly and partly to get her attention before she tripped over him as the butterfly flew right over his head. It didn't do much good. Startled by what to her was a sudden appearance, she tripped over her own two feet and nearly fell into his lap, but his arms came around her waist and steadied her. They stayed that way for a moment, her bracing his arms to remain steady, half in his lap, her head very close to his chest and part of her hair had fallen over his shoulder. She blushed and quickly pulled herself to her feet, backing off a few paces. He smiled and patted the space next to him. "Sit down a moment."

She looked like she'd rather face down a mountain troll, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione had done the previous year, but she sat down all the same.

There was silence for a moment, then Harry said, "beautiful evening, isn't it?"

"Yes, lovely," Ginny nodded.

Knowing they desperately needed an icebreaker, Harry asked her, "what are you looking forward to most about Hogwarts?"

That got her going. She told him she was most eager to learn Charms and to possibly play for the Gryffindor Quidditch team in a few years; she regaled him with stories that Fred and George had told her, and that she was already slightly afraid of Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris. Harry allowed himself to be talked into silence, nodding and giving sounds of assent every time she paused. She was very chatty, but he didn't mind so much; he was used to chatty women. His Aunt Petunia was always gossiping about the neighbors and Hermione was very mouthy in a pedantic way. Ginny, however, was very fond of just plain conversation. By the time, Mrs. Weasley called them inside for dinner, Harry felt that they had made a break through and hopefully, Ginny wouldn't be so reserved from then on.

* * *

Harry was both right and wrong. He had made progress with Ginny, but it was years before she started really opening up. He always thought that if he had just listened to her, he might have stopped Tom Riddle and defeated the basilisk sooner. It wasn't until their fourth year that he realized just how much Ginny had grown as a person. When he and Ron were rushing around looking for partners to go to Yule Ball, neither of them saw two women directly in front of them. Ron was extremely jealous the entire night at Hermione going with Viktor Krum, but as she pointed out later, it was his own fault for not asking her in the first place.

Harry spent more time than he thought he would watching Ginny and Neville. When Ron suggested to Ginny right in front of Harry that she go with him, Ginny had blushed at the suggestion, but not because of a crush. It was more like the blush Cho Chang had had on her face when she declined Harry's offer. He could tell she wanted to say yes, if nothing else for the sake of manners, but a sense of duty to the person she had already accepted held her back. At the time she said she was going with Neville, Harry hadn't thought much of it, only thinking that Ginny had grown up from her celebrity crush, but when it came to the evening of the ball, his eyes darted between Ginny and Neville, and Cedric and Cho. Even years later, he wouldn't have said that he was jealous, and in truth, he didn't believe he was, but one could reasonably argue that he was envious. He had something of a crush on Cho and he was very fond of Ginny. He wished it was him who was bringing those smiles to their faces.

He didn't think of that Ginny for another two years. His attempt at dating Cho didn't go exactly as he'd planned, after a bad Valentine's date in Hogsmeade, and it wasn't until his sixth year that he realized just what he felt for Ginny. After kissing her in front of the entire Gryffindor common room, he realized what he had known for years, that it was her who had always held his heart.

* * *

Just as he had done five years previously, Harry laid in the grass as the sun set over the Burrow. Ron's brother, Bill, was marrying Fleur de la Coeur the next day and everyone was rushing about with the last minute preparations. They were also celebrating Harry's birthday, but he decided to take a moment to himself before they dug into his scrumptious looking birthday cake, molded in the shape of a Golden Snitch.

He had made a face of being fine all day long, but if he were to be honest with himself, he felt awful. Every time he looked at Ginny, he was reminded of what he had said to her after Dumbledore's funeral a few month previously. They had just begun a relationship and then he ended it, rather abruptly too, but there was nothing else for it. She had to be free to live her life and find someone who would stand by her; he was going to be spending an indefinite amount of time hunting Horcruxes and finding a way to kill Voldemort. He already didn't like that Ron and Hermione were coming along with him, but he for certain wasn't going to let Ginny know what they were doing. Of course, it didn't help that he had kissed her earlier that day and then got into a fight with Ron over it. But still, he had to distance himself from her and really from all his friend, the less anyone knew the better. Which was just as well, because Harry didn't even know where to begin looking for a Horcrux. Hermione had the fake locket in her bag and he wondered how long it would take them to discover what had happened to the real one. He sighed, the next several months were going to be a trial, he could feel it.

Footsteps nearby caught his attention. He sat up slowly, trying to ascertain who was coming, but in the hope that he wouldn't be seen. His breath caught in his throat, it was Ginny. His mind shot back to that afternoon all those summers ago when she had chased that butterfly across this very meadow. He had thought then that the way the sunlight caught her hair had made her look like an angel, it was nothing compared to how she looked now. In a green dress for his party and her hair flowing down around her shoulders, the last rays of the sun reflecting brilliantly around her so that she appeared once again enveloped in a golden-red halo, she looked nothing short of a divine being. She smiled slightly and came to sit next to him.

"There you are," she said shortly. "I had a feeling you'd be here."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because every time you come and stay with us, you find your way out to this field, just to get away. I understand that."

"Do you?"

"You try growing up with sixth brothers. You enjoy a moment to yourself."

There was a moment of silence, then Harry said, "Ginny, about earlier when I kissed you…"

"Don't worry," she smiled. "I let you because I wanted you to know that I'll still be here when you come back."

"_If_ I come back," he corrected her.

"Not if, when," she stressed. "You're doing what you have to do, Harry, I respect that. But I also know that this won't go on forever. You'll defeat him and you'll come back, and I'll still be here."

He wanted dearly to promise to defeat the Dark Lord, but he knew he couldn't do any such thing. Ginny seemed to know that however. She smiled and stood up. "Come on, it's time for your party and everyone is waiting for you."

He rose to his feet also and couldn't resist leaning in to give her a kiss, promising without words that he would find a way back to her. They walked hand in hand back to the house, where Harry found the Minister of Magic waiting to read to him, Ron and Hermione the late Professor Albus Dumbledore's last will and testament.

* * *

Nineteen years had passed since that summer when Harry and Ginny said goodbye. Now, they were happily married with three children, lived in London, and often spent their free time with Ron and Hermione and their children. Harry and Ron worked in the Auror office, Hermione in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (where she had recently succeeded in getting a house elf into the department) and Ginny played Quidditch for England. Even though they all had homes of their own, they spent most weekends at the Burrow with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who eagerly awaited the arrival of their grandchildren every Friday afternoon.

Just as they had always done and always would do, Harry and Ginny would take a few moments every weekend and walk hand-in-hand across the meadows that they had grown to love so dearly. This night in particular, they watched as their eldest son, James, played a mock game of Quidditch with Albus, his younger brother who was starting at Hogwarts that year, and Hugo, Ron and Hermione's son. Their girls, Lily and Rose, were doing as Ginny had done that first summer and chasing a butterfly.

"This is home, Ginny," he said.

"What?" she asked.

"This. Standing here with you, seeing our children so happy, and in a place where we spent many a happy time. This is home."

She smiled and reached up to kiss him. "Welcome home, Harry."

He kissed her again, much to the chagrin of the boys and the delighted giggles of the girls, then continued their walk, hand in hand across the field bathed in the glow of a golden sunset.

The End.

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**So how was it? Good for someone who's been on hiatus for so long? Thank you for reading! Don't forget to leave a comment!**


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